CENTRAL NEW YORK – Only in the second full week of May did area high school boys tennis teams manage to evade weather issues and get in something close to a full slate of matches.
Already with a 2-0 mark, Fayetteville-Manlius made it three wins in a row last Monday when it went to West Genesee and dismissed the Wildcats 6-1.
David Fernando, Cameron Lukasik and Fergus Brady did not drop a single game in any of their six sets of singles play. Moving to doubles, the Hornets’ teams of Jaden Duggal-Davin Woolridge, Andrew Li-Charlie Loh and Gene Balian-Dan Manta also prevailed in straight sets.
Then, in the first of two showdowns with Baldwinsville in a three-day span, F-M edged the Bees 4-3, taking three of the four doubles matches and clinching it with Lukasik, in singles, handling Eric Smith 6-2, 6-0, though the two sides would meet again on Monday.
Jamesville-DeWitt flattened Syracuse City 7-0, not allowing a game in four of the six contested matches. Even the others were lopsided for the Red Rams, whether it was Mark Bratslavsky, in singles, beating Leo Mann 6-1, 6-2, or in doubles Nathan Chen and Ryan Collins beating Dezmond McCurty and Abdulrahim Shalaan by those same scores.
J-D continued to roll on Friday, blanking Oswego 7-0 without dropping more than three games in any single match. William Sharlow and Aidan Usher had that extra work as they still beat the Buccaneers’ duo of Andrew Mullen and Tyler Roper 6-1, 6-2.
Christian Brothers Academy maintained its unbeaten mark with last Monday’s 4-1 win over LaFayette. Ben Vlassis and Soren Kanh had 6-0, 6-0 shutouts over, respectively, Luke Wanlass and Mark Humphrey, with Chris Cuomo taking a bit longer to beat Paul Coon 6-2, 6-4.
Though the Brothers did drop a point in doubles, it evened out when Caleb Buddie and Finn Doyle claimed a 7-6, 6-3 decision over Fabrizio Arezzo and Will Vandemeer.
Manlius-Pebble Hill earned its first win of the season 5-0 over Phoenix last Tuesday, with Alex Fung, in singles, blanking Cayden McKay 6-0, 6-0 as Anthony Pitts routed Liam Sweeney 6-1, 6-0 and Kai Hokanson sailed past Liam Campanino 6-1, 6-0.
On Thursday, MPH fell 3-2 to Homer, though it got points when Hokanson, in singles, rallied for a 4-6, 7-6, 7-6 win over the Trojans’ Raymond Meng.
Matt Roberson and Deven Trikka paired up in doubles, where they made their own comeback to beat Nik Kruman and Conor Powers 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, but Fung, close to the clinching point in singles, lost to Jake Camp 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
On the other side of all this, East Syracuse Minoa was shut out 7-0 by Oswego last Tuesday, only pushing one of the matches to three sets as Krish Patel and Donovan Randall could not quite complete a comeback for the Spartans, falling 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 to the Buccaneers’ duo of Duncan Baker and Lucas Manicca.
ESM then did better against Central Square on Thursday, but still lost 5-2 to the Redhawks. Noah Satterlee won in singles 6-3, 1-6, 7-5 over Owen Peck, while Randall and Jayce Domres outlasted Brennan Smith and Ethan Wells in a 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 doubles classic.
